Officials from Shanghai's Tongji University and US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology attend the signing ceremony for the City Science Lab, a new Shanghai-based research center that the two sides plan jointly to establish, on Feb 13. [Photo provided to study-shanghai.org]

Shanghai Tongji University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) strengthened their cooperation even further on Feb 13, when the two universities agreed to jointly establish a new research center in Shanghai.

Zhong Zhihua, president of Tongji, along with other officials from the two schools, attended the signing ceremony for the new project, which will be called the City Science Lab.

Aimed at promoting more collaboration between Tongji and MIT on teaching and scientific research, the new center will carry out innovative research and explore new approaches in technology, policy and services.

The lab will focus on research into sustainable lifestyles, industrial transformation, and the relationship between local funds and financial industries, with the hope of making breakthroughs in important fields such as transportation, health care, smart living, creative education, urban-rural interaction, and advanced manufacturing.

Tongji and MIT have cooperated successfully on several projects in recent years, including the much-celebrated Shanghai-based Fablab, a small-scale workshop for digital fabrication which was established by the two sides in 2014.

Fablab-Shanghai, a small-scale digital fabrication workshop jointly run by Tongji University and MIT, has opened up many activities since its establishment in 2014. [Photo provided to study-shanghai.org]